The poems in Clare Pollard's new collection Incarnation are about our children and the stories that we tell them. Whether looking at the discourse around pregnancy, describing the pain of childbirth or thinking about surveillance at soft play, they blur the personal and political. Pinocchio, Hamelin, Alice and The Tiger who Came to Tea make appearances alongside biblical tales: the ark, the whale's belly, the Moses basket in the rushes. There are poems for lost daughters - Amy Winehouse, Madeleine McCann, the victims of honour killings - and lost sons. There are also poems about innocence and responsibility which ask what it means to bring new human beings into this world, and how we shape them through our words.
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The Dead Sea's senseless brine spits me back up.- Jordan, September 2012
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(@BloodaxeBooks, 1 January 2017, paperback, 64 pages, bought from @AmazonUK)
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I've read Incarnation once, not long after it was published. I don't remember much about the collection so it was nice to revisit it. The theme running through these poems is parenting, motherhood and children. I'm not a mother myself but could still relate to the poems because of my relationship with my own mother. These poems, as ever as well-written, enjoyable and engaging. I really liked the use of imagery and language. I especially enjoyed Suffer, Afterbirth, Lullaby over a Moses Basket, 23 Mindblowing Truths You Didn't Know About the Princess and Boys. I'd recommend this.
